Working with IBM, Standard Life is addressing the real-time financial needs of its diverse customer base as they plan and invest in their future.

According to a study by the IBM Institute for Business Value, “Banking Redefined: Disruption, transformation and the next-generation bank,” only 30 percent of customers believe they are receiving a personalized customer experiences, despite the fact that 45 percent of bankers indicate they think they are delivering on that promise. In many cases, this lack of execution is driven by IT roadblocks and legacy technology, which make delivering relevancy, especially on a global scale and across multiple channels, challenging.

Today IBM Commerce is enabling Standard Life to serve the unique financial needs of its UK customers along their journey with the brand. Using powerful analytics from IBM, Standard Life can now accurately track a person’s interactions across different screens and devices by examining both structured and unstructured data that previously was left untapped.

“Financial planning is such an important part of our future,” said Harriet Green, General Manager, Watson IoT, Commerce and Education, IBM. “Customers need to know that businesses not only see their unique needs and priorities but are able to adapt to each one, giving confidence they are making the right choices.”

Using IBM Campaign and Interact, Standard Life can then turn these insights into a unique customer snapshot that helps illustrate each person’s financial needs and long-term aspirations. Employees can then more effectively prescribe the appropriate action, all in near real-time. Standard Life is also able to deliver this level of personalization across multiple channels whether they are online, on their mobile device or live with consultants from the contact center where the company has already seen significant and immediate return on investment.

Customer consultants now have live, personalized messages to refer to when talking with a customer, all built on the predictive models and analytical technology. Today inbound offers presented have seen an uplift of eight percent. At the same time, this insight also helps Standard Life maintain the ongoing loyalty of each customer.

“Today we are truly working towards a segment of one and as a result, our customer communications must be personalized at a depth unimaginable just a few years ago, said Stephen Ingledew, the Managing Director of Marketing for Standard Life in the UK. “In just a short period of time, IBM has allowed us to get to know our customers and their needs on an entirely new level, so in the end we are presenting exactly the right products and services at exactly the right time and achieving the highest level of engagement as a result.”

Separately, IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced its collaboration with ING Direct Australia to attract, engage and build brand loyalty with today’s younger digital savvy consumers.

ING Direct is now accelerating growth by delivering personalized banking services to online and mobile customers precisely when they need them most using IBM.

Australian consumers are leading the world in their use of mobile banking, which has created greater needs for businesses to deliver a feature rich and personalized set of services and campaigns that can meet their needs. ING DIRECT looked to IBM to better engage with these digital savvy consumers, including millennials who have shifted away from brick and mortar branches to both online and on their mobile devices.

Now, ING Direct can glean insights on how a customer is interacting with the business, whether it’s across the web, mobile device, or call center and present them with product recommendations, personalized offers or service information focused on their everyday and future banking needs. With IBM, ING is now generating personalized messages to more than one million customers and prospects each month, which has allowed it to double its customer acquisition rates year-over-year.

“The combination of digital disruption, tougher competition, and increasing consumer expectations is creating an opportunity for ING Direct to acquire new customers and better engage existing customers,” said Lisa Claes, Executive Director of Customer Delivery, ING Direct Australia “With this IBM collaboration, we can better generate insights of a consumer’s interactions and preferences and immediately connect them with the information they need when they need it most. It’s this level of service that attracts customers and nurtures their loyalty.”

With IBM, ING has also reduced the time required to create and deliver larger personalized customer campaigns--a medium-sized campaign that previously took approximately six days to build can now be done in three. In addition, ING has seen significant improvements in its call center. Today, when customers hit the ‘call me’ button in the ING mobile app the customer service team tailors the conversation to the person’s precise situation to ensure they quickly meet their needs—this relevancy has allowed ING to increase conversion rates by 120 percent.

“Today we do everything on-the-go and it’s no different with banking and financial services. But with mobility we cannot sacrifice the personalization and guidance that helps consumers make the right decisions,” said Harriet Green, General Manager, Watson IoT, Commerce and Education, IBM. “Right now, ING Direct is helping tap into personalized banking experiences to drive loyalty with a younger generation of customers who will will be essential to their future once their loyalty is earned.”